Free COVID-19 application launches from Sygic

The volunteers from global navigation vendor Sygic and other technology companies have developed a mobile application, which aims to slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus. The new application uses GPS and Bluetooth sensors to determine if the user came into contact with an infected person in the last 14 days. 

The application Covid-19 for mobile phones with iOS and Android operating systems uses GPS and Bluetooth sensors to detect contact with an infected person even in enclosed spaces and can anonymously reverse-trace initial infection before the symptoms occur. 

The developers who participated in this project have used their extensive experience in embedding the smartphone sensors such that the app can accurately detect close contact. This is achieved using not only a GPS sensor, but also Bluetooth.

Bluetooth is the ideal technology to map close encounters of people in buildings, subways, buses, supermarkets, offices, or even on a specific floor or other closed quarters. 

GPS is reliable outside, but most people are infected inside. Bluetooth solves this problem. GPS can be used by individual countries to detect individual outbreaks better. That is the reason why we combine both sensors,” said Michal Stencl, member of the board at Sygic.  

We believe that all systems, including apps should be under the control of every single country as it hosts the important data of their inhabitants,” explained Stencl. By incorporating advanced algorithms, the application can prevent false indications and unnecessary panic. The volunteers are offering the technology to all countries worldwide and it will be released on GitHub after the initial launch. 

“We believe it could be a great platform to trial new technologies. Slovakia is a small country of only 5.5 million people in the heart of Europe. With a smaller population, it is easier to scale things faster and learn from data to provide more information, even to larger nations. This is something that is extremely important in these challenging times.

The application is free for everyone because we believe that such technologies could help countries to cope with global pandemics. This is why we have decided to share the code with other countries, health institutions such as the World Health Organization (WHO), allowing us to use the time to slow down the infection. It is imperative that we all work together as one country, ethnicity, profession or age,” added Stencl.